This sermon was preached on 10/11/09 at Our Savior. The sermon is the first in a series called “Love Takes Time,” which is a stewardship emphasis on our use of time. The sermon text as well as the sermon title (or something close to it) were produced by the WELS for congregations to use as a stewardship emphasis. The sermon itself, though, is my own work.
Love Takes Time…to Know God
How long does it take to know another person? In some ways, it doesn't take much time at all. If you look around church this morning and see someone that you don't know, there's an easy fix for that. Just walk up to the person after church and introduce yourself. Easy. Done. Now you know each other. It really just takes a couple of moments and a few words.
In other ways, though, knowing someone else takes a lot longer. Think about the people in your lives that you know the best. They're probably not people you just met. Instead, they tend to be people we've known for years, even since we were born. When you are growing up, you get to know your family pretty well. But even then, sometimes years later, you get to know them better, you get to know things you never did before. Most married couples thought they knew each other on their wedding day. It doesn't take long for them to realize, though, that they only get to know each other better as time goes on.
To really know someone takes time. It can take all our lives, and it can take all our love. After all, when we really know someone, it means we know their problems, their faults, their little eccentricities that make them who they are. It's a process that requires our love. We have to work at it, we need to seek to know people to really know them better.
It's the same for our relationship with God. Do you really know God? Most of you would say, "Yes, of course I know him! He's Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. He's the Triune God who loved me so much that he sent God the Son Jesus Christ to be my Savior. Because of that, after I die I will live forever with God in heaven." At least I hope that's what you'd say. But even knowing that about God, you don't know him perfectly.
He's a God who hides himself. (Is. 45:15) He doesn't tell us everything he has planned for each one of us in our lives. He hasn't told us why everything happens to us that happens. He hasn't revealed how long our lives will be or how long it will be until Jesus returns to take us to heaven.
But even the things God has told us about himself, none of us knows perfectly. After all, God reveals himself through his Word, the Bible. And how many people have the entire Bible memorized and know all of it perfectly? None of us do! But that doesn't mean we shouldn't try to learn more. In fact, the more we study God's Word, the more we get to know our God, the more we will love him. We'll love him more because we will see his love for us more clearly. Learning more about God, seeking him in his Word, is a life-long process. We will never stop growing in our love for our God and Savior, as long as we never stop growing in his Word. Love takes time, and our love for God grows as we seek God in his Word.
It's my prayer for you that you would know God better. It's my prayer that you seek him in the Bible and grow in your knowledge of his love for you everyday. That's also exactly what the Apostle Paul was praying for in our text from Ephesians. "For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name." (Eph. 3:14-15) Right here at the beginning of our prayer, we're getting to know God better, because we're reminded that he's our Father.
We all come from different families and have different earthly fathers, but we all have one heavenly Father. He made every one of us. He keeps us breathing. He provides for us by sending rain to make things grow and giving us wisdom and strength to earn money and be able to buy food and shelter and clothing. To put it another way, God is our Father, and he acts like it.
The fact that he uses that word, "Father" tells us something else about God. We might expect that the God who created all things would be pretty scary. If he's powerful enough to form the mountains and fill the oceans, then what could he do to me if I don't listen to him? And, how could I ever expect him to listen to little old me? He's much too powerful and important to pay attention to me...
But no! He's our Father. A Father listens to his children. So we can approach our heavenly Father with boldness and confidence and ask him for things like dear children ask their dear father. (Luther's Catechism) That shows you something about God's love: he listens to us. He hears our prayers. No matter where we are, God hears us. He hears us because of his Son, as we had heard earlier in Ephesians: "Through [Christ] we...have access to the Father." (Eph. 2:18) What love God has that hears us when we pray to him!
That means he hears the prayer in our text, too. We read, "I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith." (Eph. 3:16-17)
Usually, if you're going to ask someone for something, you want to make sure that the person is capable of giving it. I don't care how many of you ask me for a million dollars; it's not going to happen. I don't have a million dollars. But with God, we can ask for anything. He is powerful enough to answer. That's why Paul appeals to God's "glorious riches." God is rich, he's got everything, so we can ask for anything. Paul, though asks for power.
God was a good one to ask for this. He is all-powerful. He made the world and everything in it. So if he wanted to give us power to bench-press 300 pounds, he could do it! But Paul's not talking about physical power. He wants God to give us power in our "inner being." He wants us to have a power that you can't see on the outside, but on the inside. It's in our hearts. And what is that power? "That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith."
Did you realize that as a believer you have Christ living in your heart? You do! And that really is a powerful thing. On our own, our hearts would probably be in despair. We'd think, "God could never love me, after the way I live. I sin every day, I take him and his Word for granted, I've done so many things that I don't think God could ever love me." But our faith, with Jesus in our hearts, tells us something different. Jesus tells us, "I've forgiven you. I've died for you, but look, I am alive! And you will live, too, because you are connected to me by faith.
And how did we get connected to Jesus by faith? How did he get into our hearts to live there? By God's Word. "Faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the Word of Christ." (Rom. 10:17) The Holy Spirit brought us to faith through his Word, or through his Word and the water in baptism. What love our God has for us, that he takes an unworthy sinner, washes our sins away, and God the Son himself comes to live in our hearts by faith. Could we ever fully understand that love?
Maybe not, but we want to try! In our text, Paul continues his prayer. "I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God." (Eph. 3:17-19) God has given us the roots of his love in our faith, and he continues to build on that foundation as we continue to hear his Word. The goal for us is to fully understand Christ's love for us, to understand "how wide and long and high and deep" his love really is.
Of course, we could never truly know God that well that we fully understand his love. Our text says it's a "love that surpasses knowledge." We can't understand it. We can't know it completely. But we can always grow in it. We can grow in it to the point that we are "filled to the measure with all the fullness of God."
So, do you feel like you are growing in your love of God, and in understanding his love for you? Are you seeking God, always thirsting to know more and to grow in his grace? Or are you content with what you have? Does the idea of growing in your knowledge not seem that important, do you think, so what, what's the point?
The truth is, if your faith isn't growing, it's dying. When we don't continue studying God's Word, when we stop hearing it or paying attention to it, our faith gets weaker. Eventually, it could die. And then we would never know God's love, but only his wrath.
But what a testament to God's love that he doesn't want that to happen. In fact, it's his power that keeps that from happening. Remember, Christ lives in your heart by faith, he wants you to keep that faith! He wants you to grow in it! And he promises to bless your faith. How does he do that? Through his Word.
God is here in his Word in our worship services. Going to church isn't meant to be some chore to keep you on God's good side. These services are God proclaiming that you're already on his good side. The services are about God pouring out his gifts on you through his Word, through his Sacraments. Don't stay away from church. Come running to the place where God promises to bless you. Talk to those you know who are no longer in church and encourage them to come and receive God's blessings, too.
God is in his Word wherever you are. Read it. Study it. Come to our Bible studies. Read the Bible on your own. God will bless that as you get to know him better. And yes, it takes time. Love takes time when you are seeking God. But what blessings he gives you as you do! And all the problems and troubles you have in your life, everything you pray for, everything you want or need, remember, God can help you with those things. Remember, he gives more than you could ever ask or imagine. So take the time to grow in his grace. He will never disappoint you.
So let's praise that God with the words Paul used to close our text: "Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen." (Eph. 3:20-21)
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